Obama Brings Gun Debate to Fore

President Obama, speaking Friday from the White House on the Connecticut school shootings, vowed to seek meaningful action to prevent more mass shootings.
larry downing/Reuters

By

Gary Fields and

Ashby Jones

Updated Dec. 17, 2012 8:03 p.m. ET

President Barack Obama, calling the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a "heinous crime," vowed to press for meaningful action to prevent more such incidents.

"We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years," Mr. Obama said, wiping away tears.

The comments he made Friday on the need to act against gun violence mirror those he made in the aftermath of the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that severely wounded then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six. He stopped short of making any proposals after that incident, however, and no new federal gun laws were enacted in its aftermath.

In a news conference at the White House, an emotional President Barack Obama reacts to a shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that has left at least 25 people dead

Whether the Connecticut school shootings, in which 27 people were killed, will lead to an effort to tighten gun laws will likely depend on the facts of the incident, many of which remained murky throughout Friday.

Two federal law-enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said authorities recovered a Glock, a Sig Sauer and a .223 Bushmaster rifle near the body of the suspected shooter, whom officials identified as Adam Lanza, 20 years old. The officials said the guns were registered to Mr. Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, who was among Friday's victims.

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The registration answers one of the questions about the origin of the firearms believed used in the mass shooting. Under federal law Mr. Lanza would have been prohibited from buying handguns from a licensed dealer because of his age. An 18-year-old, however, can get a handgun as a gift or from a private seller.

Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the country, and a retired federal agent, said the two guns recovered Friday are among the most popular with law enforcement.

Calls to the U.S. headquarters for Glock weren't returned. In a statement, Sig Sauer said: "Our deepest sympathies go out to all who have been affected by this terrible tragedy. Before issuing any further statements, we need to completely understand what transpired in the commission of this horrific crime."

Connecticut has some of the toughest gun-ownership restrictions in the country, according to Brian Malte, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence. Connecticut residents who wish to buy and carry a handgun have to receive a permit, which requires an extensive background check. Assault weapons are banned in the state.

Gun-rights supporters and others said Friday's shootings show the limited reach of restrictive gun-control regimes, such as that in place in Connecticut. "It's a very restrictive state, and this presumably occurred in a gun-free school zone," said Dave Workman, the editor of TheGunMag.com, a magazine owned by the Second Amendment Foundation, a pro gun-rights lobby group. "It creates a situation where the criminals have guns, and everyone else is defenseless."

Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the organization based in Bellevue, Wash., said that too often in gun-control debates, the downsides of gun restrictions get ignored. "You never hear about the number of times someone successfully uses a gun to protect himself or his family or property. That gets completely lost in the debate."

Still, some legal and policy experts said the Connecticut shootings could prompt tougher federal legislation on gun control. "It's possible that this shooting will be the tipping point," said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "This is the cap to an awful year of horrific shootings. And if anything's going to cause politicians to act, it's a roomful of child victims."

Mr. Winkler, who wrote the 2011 book "Gunfight" and is seen by observers as a centrist voice on gun control, agrees there are limits to what even the most restrictive gun-control regimes can prevent, citing the 2011 shootings at a Norwegian summer camp that killed dozens of people. "Norway has some of the toughest gun laws in the world."

The shootings come one day after Michigan lawmakers voted to allow trained gun owners to carry concealed weapons into places once prohibited. Under the bill, which is now on the desk of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, schools can opt out if they wish. Gov. Snyder said through spokeswoman Sara Wurfel that the bill "was going to be already going through a careful review and analysis." He also said "these situations always must and should give pause as they're so tragic but that we can't jump to conclusions either."

The most prominent federal gun law to go into effect during the Obama administration was one that eased restrictions, allowing gun owners to carry loaded weapons into National Parks and wildlife refuges as long as the relevant state's laws permitted it.

In the comments Mr. Obama delivered from the White House, he spoke of the children who were killed. "The majority of those who died today were children—beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them—birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, co-chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group that promotes tougher federal, state and local gun regulation, said Mr. Obama needed to do more than send condolences. "Calling for 'meaningful action' is not enough," he said in a statement. "We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before."

Corrections & Amplifications A .223 Bushmaster rifle that was used in the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School was found near the suspect's body. Based on early reports from law-enforcement officials, an earlier version of this article incorrectly said the Bushmaster rifle was found in the back of a vehicle at the scene.

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